A joint study done by Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC) and Club Tourism Co. Ltd, a popular travel agency, have found that people who travel more often have a higher sense of well-being and ability to cope with stress, and that their cognitive function is maintained by having a clear travel plan.
These initial findings are from a pre-surveys on the effects of travel on dementia conducted over three years from 2016, regarding the relationship between the number of trips and subjective well-being in the past five years for men and women over the age of 60.
In this survey on travel motivation and subjective well-being, individuals who travel motivated by local exchanges were more satisfied with their lives. Those who travel because they want to interact with people they meet at travel destinations have positive feelings about life, such as “life is interesting” and “the present life is happier than the past”.
It was also found that those who were motivated by cultural observations such as “I want to know the culture and history of the destination” have a strong confidence that they can cope with the difficult situations in their lives.
High subjective well-being is thought to affect the maintenance of cognitive function, but this result shows the high degree of relationship between the number of trips and subjective well-being, and the number of trips to have a dementia prevention/suppression effect.
For this reason, Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC) together with Club Tourism, will continue to conduct joint research to show whether travel is effective in preventing/suppressing dementia, and what areas of the brain are related.